All posts tagged World Cup 2014

The Brazilian soccer federation has contacted FIFA to appeal a suspension for its captain, Thiago Silva, and urge the organization to investigate the foul that led to Neymar’s tournament-ending injury, FIFA said on Sunday.

Neymar suffered a broken vertebra after Colombia’s Juan Camilo Zuniga crashed into his back during the dying minutes of Brazil’s Pyrric quarterfinal victory on Friday. Zuniga went in with his knee raised, but didn’t receive a yellow card from the referee while Neymar was carried off on a stretcher.

In a statement released Saturday night, the Confederação Brasileira de Futebo called the tackle “relatively violent.” Read More »

Well known for his dives, Uruguay striker Luis Suarez is deft at selling fouls that didn’t happen. Now he’s become a business opportunity for online vendors in China skilled at selling products that don’t exist. Read More »

In a rematch of the World Cup final in South Africa four years ago, the Netherlands and Spain go head-to-head on Friday in their first group game in Brazil. This time around the Dutch are a massive underdog, keeping a lid on the hysteria here known as Orange Fever.

Although defending champion Spain has shown signs of age, the Dutch are a shadow of their former selves. After an early exit from the Euro 2012 tournament where internal fights and hurt egos dominated, the Dutch team fell apart. Only seven players of the 2010 Dutch team headed to Brazil under the leadership of Louis van Gaal, who took over after the European championship disgrace. In the FIFA world ranking, the Oranje dropped to 15th after ranking second on the list four years ago. Read More »

The 2014 World Cup officially kicked off in Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil with the Opening Ceremony prior to the first match featuring Brazil and Croatia. The ceremony featured a performance by Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez, and Claudia Leitte. The three performers released “We Are One (Ole Ola)” earlier this year as the official song of the tournament. The opening game begins at 4:00 p.m. ET. Find our live blog here. Read More »

The 2014 World Cup kicks off today with an opening match between host country Brazil and Croatia. For the first two weeks of the tournament, 32 teams will face off during the group stage. Two teams out of the eight groups will emerge, with the remaining sixteen teams battling it out in the Knockout Round of the tournament starting on June 28th.

Each country plays the other three teams in its group once, and the two teams with the best record will advance. Teams are awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw, and none for a loss. Who will claim their place in the Knockout Round? Give us your thoughts on who will win each group and who will claim second place by taking our polls below. Not sure who to pick? Get to know the squads with our interactive World Cup team previews. Read More »

As the World Cup approaches, fans of the 32 participating nations will have something to cheer for. But the World Cup is a global event that reaches far beyond just the residents of those nations.

We choose favorites in sports for a variety of reasons, and soccer is no different, even when the players on the pitch are representing distinct countries.

It can be fun to root for your home country, but sometimes you also need to have a backup. What happens when your country fails to advance out of the group stage? Or perhaps you’re from one of the 177 FIFA organizations not represented at the World Cup in 2014. Maybe your allegiance lies more closely with a player from your favorite club team. We want to get a sense of where rooting interests lie, and we want to hear your take.

You can help us understand how these loyalties are formed by filling out our form below. We’ll share some of your responses on why you’ve chosen to cheer for a certain team right here on Daily Fix. Read More »

Days before the opening of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Facebook and Twitter have launched coverage areas. Both social networks figure to have a big presence in the way people watch and follow the action.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has launched a page that aggregates popular public posts about the World Cup and features a match tracker. Also unveiled was a fan map, which shows a geographic breakdown of the fans of 10 prominent player Facebook pages. For example, it shows that Cristiano Ronaldo, the world’s most followed player on Facebook, has 84 million fans. What might surprise is that by Facebook’s data, he’s huge in Sri Lanka, where his popularity is 20.5% “above average.”

Twitter sees the World Cup as an opportunity to sign up new users, giving new accounts the opportunity to declare allegiance to a country and select a pre-made image as a new avatar. Twitter has also created a custom World Cup hub for the tournament and for individual matches. You can also now tweet to include a country’s flag, a feature called “hashflags” that was in use during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Pop star Shakira showed the feature off in what appears to be a coordinated launch for the product. Twitter will use these mentions in its “World Cup of Tweets,” which will go live on Thursday.

Adidas AG, kicked around in past years for the design of its World Cup soccer balls, aims to avoid another controversy as it gears up for the 2014 tournament with a simple formula: Test, test, and when in doubt, test again.

The German sports outfitter is calling the newest ball “Brazuca,” which informally means “Brazilian.” The company claims it has been tested by 600 players, including Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Germany’s Bastian Schweinsteiger, and a handful of teams including AC Milan. Read More »

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Jeremy Gordon is a freelance writer who lives in Chicago. He has written for TheAtlantic.com, MTV and Prefix and occasionally Tumbles and Tweets. The last time he cried was when Steve Bartman dropped the ball.

Jared Diamond writes about sports for The Wall Street Journal. He currently serves as a beat reporter covering the New York Mets and Major League Baseball.

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When Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao step into the ring on May 2, they will fight at the welterweight-class limit of 147 pounds—an odd, seemingly random number that has long held a special mystique.